Family Ties
by leafs nation
Summary: My sequel to What If, the Finsters and the Watanabes start to adjust to their new lives with eachother.
1. Working Days

Sup everyone? This is going to be sort of a sequel to my "What If" story, in that Kimi and Chuckie just became siblings and have just started becoming a family. So I would read that story before starting to dig into this one, k? Anyway, here goes nothing…

"Alright, grab an apron and I'll show you around the place." Chuckie told his sister with a gesture of his hand. Chas had offered Kimi a part-time job at the newly-built Java Lava, and she gladly accepted. Truth be told, she never had had a job before when she was living in Paris, so for her to get one from her new father was beyond awesome.

"Aye aye, captain. Did you need me to swab the deck, or scavenge for buried treasure?"

Chuckie shook his head and grinned, answering, "Nope, that comes later. What you need to see first is all of the kinds of juices we have. Let's see… um… grape, orange, cherry, blueberry, banana, kiwi, mango…"

"I'm not being tested on this, am I?" Kimi complained.

Chuckie looked back with an "are you serious" look and continued to show her around. There were a ton of different smoothies that they had to make, but the actual instructions on how to make them were pretty easy. All you had to worry about was if they wanted real, cut-up fruit or just juice (the latter was less expensive), and then all you did was mix up the juices in either the blender or the mixer and you were done.

"Ok, so now I get to show you where all of the cleaning supplies-"

"Oh, Chuck you've got a customer! I'll figure the rest out afterwards, I promise." Kimi exclaimed, excited to try out her skills.

Chuckie shrugged his shoulders and went to take the order. Standing in line was a tall, mean-looking fella with tattoos all over his arms and sunglasses on. In a rough, smoker's voice he said that he wanted a blueberry-mango smoothie with some yogurt thrown in.

"Oh, sir! Did you want real fruit or juice? And did you want me to put in the yogurt in first? Or maybe you wanted the mango in…" Kimi trailed off.

The man sighed and said, "I don't care what order it's in, and just use juice, I'm in a hurry."

Kimi nodded a little too enthusiastically and replied, "Coming right up!" She selected both juices from the machine, and dumped some yogurt into the mixer. She turned it on, and seemed proud that she had just made her first smoothie.

However, her accomplishment was cut short when the lid suddenly popped up and the concoction started spraying everywhere. "CHUCKIE! HOW DO I STOP THIS THING?!"

Chuckie pressed the emergency stop button, and Kimi took out the cup to give to the man. She smiled sheepishly and took out a cloth to wipe the man's face off, since he was covered in yogurt.

"Oops, heh heh… um, have a nice day!" Kimi said.

The man simply huffed and stormed out of the store, hopping on his motorcycle and driving away.

"Sheesh, what a grouch!" Kimi exclaimed after the man was out of earshot, "I make him a smoothie _and _I clean him off, and not even a 'thank you'! Doesn't he know it's my first day?"

"Uh, Kimi. Look behind you."

When she turned around, all she could see was a big mess of juice and yogurt. Not an area wasn't covered by the goopy substance.

"I'm thinking I should hold down the lid next time."

"Maybe now's a good time to show you where all of the cleaning supplies are." Chuckie said calmly.

A second later, they both started laughing uncontrollably as they walked into the back room, without a care in the world.

_4 hours later…_

As the two siblings cleaned up the store and Chuckie locked the door behind him, Kimi shivered from the cold wind. "Ugh, let's get home before we both freeze to death."

"Yeah, no kidding."

They started their walk in the dark towards their suburban home a few blocks away. The street lights casted a dim light on parts of the sidewalk below, and the only sound you could hear were the footsteps of Kimi and Chuckie. No cars were out at this time of night.

"So be honest, how do you think I did today?" Kimi asked, anxious for her brother's response.

Chuckie gave her a thumbs up and replied, "For your first day, pretty darn good. You caught on a lot quicker than I expected you to."

Kimi made a fake pouting face and sarcastically said, "Oh, wow thanks for the confidence, Chucko. I'll remember that the next time you need help with anything."

"Come on, you know I'm only kidding around. Besides, I wouldn't need your help for anything anyway, ha ha!"

Kimi smirked and raised an eyebrow. "Oh really? Then I guess you won't be needing my help at all this Saturday when Mom and Dad are out of town and you have to take care of everything by yourself? Especially when it's 50% off small smoothies that weekend?"

Chuckie grimaced and instantly replied, "Ok, I take it back. I suppose I could use your assistance after all, sis."

Kimi smiled in triumph and stated, "Of course you do. I'm the smart one, after all."

Chuckie just smiled and shook his head. Having Kimi as a sister was turning out to be really cool. Now he had someone to talk to that was relatively his own age, and he didn't have to be alone if he wasn't with his friends. It turns out that Kimi also happened to be a great listener, and someone you could turn to for advice. Chuckie figured that she had plenty of experiences with all the crap she'd put up with and that she had to grow up more quickly than most, which really was a shame.

Chuckie returned from his thoughts when he saw Kimi looking a little down. "Something bugging you, bud?" he asked concernedly.

Kimi hesitated a bit before answering. Continuing to walk forward, she looked up in the night sky and said, "I don't know. I guess everything's been happening so fast lately. I mean, with moving to a new country, to adjusting to life here, to starting off in a new family… I guess it's just all a bit overwhelming, you know?"

Chuckie nodded in understanding. Although he wouldn't admit it, he had been feeling pretty stressed out lately too. He constantly had to check on Chas to make sure that he could move around and function after his injuries. And then from adjusting to home life to school, friends, work- it was a lot to take in.

"Yeah, I hear you. But you know what? Even though you've had in my opinion way too much drama and other stuff for one person to handle, I think you've adjusted well from your experiences. I mean, who else can say that they got kidnapped, survived numerous injuries and then managed to attend your mother's wedding a month and a half later? I certainly don't know anyone else."

Kimi laughed a little and Chuckie continued, "I think that what you think is overwhelming now will be normal pretty soon. You've got your friends and a whole new family that you can come to if you ever need support."

Kimi smiled and turned to give Chuckie a hug, who returned it. "Thanks, bro. I guess I just had a lot on my mind is all." She then returned to facing forward and realized that they were only a few feet away from their house.

"Mmm… I smell some of Mom's spaghetti cooking right now. Come on, I'm starving!" The two of them raced into the house, following the trail of goodness waiting for them inside.


	2. Nightmares and Dreary Days

_The henchmen crept closer and closer, trapping her in the corner with menacing looks on their faces. There was no way to escape them now, and they were closing in fast. A single one of them lifted his hand to produce a crowbar out of thin air, while the rest of them started to do the same._

_She tried to scream out for help, but no words were coming forth. All that she could hear was the cackling of the strange men before they started beating her over the head with everything they could muster. She could do nothing but try helplessly to block their attempts by covering her head with her arms, until they abruptly stopped._

_When she turned to look up, she saw different horrifying events taking place before her, each more terrible than the last. The worst was still to come however, as she realized that she was now tied up to a chair in some dusty, old warehouse with a maniacal lady standing over her._

"_You'll never see your family again! EVER AGAIN!" she yelled out._

_The next thing she knew, this evil lady had turned to the man next to her and shot a bullet straight through his stomach until…_

"AHHHH!" Kimi woke up screaming with tears in her eyes.

She scanned the room for any potential danger, and then lay with her head back on her pillow. 'Shit,' she thought to herself, 'this has been going on for too long now.'

Just as luck would have it, she heard her door being opened slowly and saw the shadowy figure of her step-father walking towards her.

"Kimi? Are you alright, sweetheart? I heard you yelling from down the hallway." Chas said worriedly.

Kimi nodded while wiping her eyes with her hand. "Yeah," she started, "I just had a bit of a nightmare, that's all."

Chas sat on the edge of her bed and studied his daughter for a moment. Even though she loved him like a real father, Kimi still wasn't used to the idea and felt slightly awkward talking to him like this.

"It was about the kidnapping, wasn't it?"

It was surprising to the Japanese girl that her step-father could already read her like a book, but it made things much easier for her so she just nodded in response.

"So, how long have you been having these nightmares for?"

"About three weeks now, I think."

Chas nodded and put a hand on Kimi's shoulder. He could sense that she was still in shock and terror so he simply patted her in a comforting manner. That is, until she started crying again and engulfed Chas into a tight embrace.

"It's alright, Kimi. You're gonna be fine, I promise." he said soothingly. As he could feel his daughter's crying turn into slight sobs, he explained, "You know, I've had the same problem as you for a couple of weeks now, too."

Kimi looked up and asked, "Really? You too?"

The older man nodded and started to talk about his recurring dreams, which were oddly enough very similar to hers. "The thing that I always try to remember though is that Coco is safely behind bars, I've got an amazing new family to look after, with two amazing kids and a caring wife. I've got everything I need right here."

Kimi nodded and just stayed in her position for a moment. She couldn't shake the feeling of loneliness and utter despair that she felt in that warehouse though, with the both of them tied up and Chas sitting there with a bullet in his gut. She knew though that her dad was right, and that eventually the fears would become a distant memory.

Chas went to stand up and lay Kimi back down into her bed. He hugged her and bid her goodnight, and told her that if she needed anything else, she could let him know.

The Finster girl was thankful, but regardless she could hardly sleep at all; desperately trying to forget about her nightmare but having little success.

_Beep! Beep! Beep!_

"Ugghh… what the heck?" Kimi rolled over on her side to shut her obnoxious alarm clock off. She then rolled back over and tried to return to sleep. That is, until she felt several pillows being thrown at her.

"Grrr… Chuckie, I'm trying to sleep! Leave me alone!"

He chuckled and replied, "Ok then, I guess you won't be catching the bus for school, which from what I see… starts in 30 minutes."

As soon as the words left his mouth, Kimi's eyes shot wide open and she raced past Chuckie into the bathroom. Chuckie just sighed and went downstairs to get some breakfast.

After having a quick shower, Kimi changed into whatever she could find (although she did look over a couple of outfits), and sped down to the breakfast table.

"Morning, Kimi. I was beginning to think you wouldn't make it." Chas laughed as he put a plate of bacon and eggs in front of his kids.

"Mmm, these are great, Dad. When did you learn to cook so well?" Chuckie asked, taking a bite out of his breakfast.

Kimi didn't catch what the two of them were saying, and when she finished she said thank you and grabbed her bag.

"Thanks, Chas!" Kimi yelled out, not thinking twice about it until she got outside.

Chuckie looked over to Chas, who seemed a little off about it, but he knew that Kimi probably just wasn't that used to having a father figure in her life yet, so he let it go.

"Alright, bud, have a good day!" Chas said to Chuckie, who simply nodded and left.

When Chuckie met up with Kimi at the bus stop, she looked like she was going to pass out. Her eyes were drooping, her shoulders were slumped and her knees were sort of giving out.

"Are you alright? You look like hell, no offence." Chuckie told his sister.

"Gee thanks for the compliment, Chuck," Kimi said dryly, turning to face the road and sighing heavily.

Chuckie stood there with his hands in his pockets and kicked around a stone with his shoe. He figured that his sister needed some time alone right now.

They both heard the engine of the bus coming to their stop, so they climbed aboard and sat next to their friends, Kimi being with Lil and Chuckie being with Phil.

"Sup girl? You aren't looking so hot, is something wrong?" Lil asked, noticing the state she was in.

Kimi simply shook her head and gave her a small grin. "Nah, just tired, I guess. Didn't get a lot of sleep last night." Lil nodded, though she had some doubts in her mind. This didn't look like it had been a one-time occurrence by any means.

Meanwhile, Phil was entertaining Chuckie by showing him his new music player and all of the apps that he had on it. "I've already got 243 songs, plus all of the games that I downloaded. Here, you can play Moon Racer if you want." Phil remarked, handing the device over to the red-headed boy.

"When did you get this, Phil?" Chuckie asked, having already beaten Phil's high score within a minute and cockily handing it back to an annoyed Phil.

The twin just smirked and shook his head, saying, "Our extremely rich British cousins came over on the weekend, and they gave me $200 to spend on anything I wanted. Lil got the same thing, but she's being lame by just _saving _her money." He then felt a rolled up piece of paper being thrown at him, no doubt from Lil.

By the time they got to the high school, Phil and Lil had stopped arguing about who was right about what to do with the money, and everyone climbed off.

Phil sighed overdramatically and complained, "Man, Mondays suck! I keep remembering that we've got five days of torture for the week before we finally get to do what we want to do! Why can't we start on like a Tuesday or something?"

Chuckie lifted a finger intelligently and replied, "That would make Tuesday the new Monday, and we would lose Saturday since everything would be moved back." Phil didn't respond and just kept walking, while Kimi huffed and rolled her eyes before walking ahead. Puzzled, Chuckie just scratched his head and walked with the rest of the gang.

"I'm telling you, Pickles, if you don't convince your parents to give you the house for this weekend, there'll be a whole lot of disappointed people waiting outside. You wouldn't want your popularity to tank, would you?"

Tommy shook his head and exasperatedly said, "Angelica, I don't care how popular I am, you do! And there isn't any possible chance of me getting the house since they aren't going anywhere!"

Angelica just gave a "Hmph!", and stormed off to find some of her friends. As everyone else came towards him, Tommy breathed a sigh of relief and exclaimed, "Finally, I thought she'd never leave- umm, guys? Did I miss something here, or is everyone just pissed off today?"

Lil just shrugged her shoulders and said, "We think everyone's just tired, well except for Chuckie, apparently."

Everyone turned to look at the Finster kid, and he replied, "I can't help it if everyone's miserable today! What's going on?"

Kimi sighed and said, "Sometimes your charm doesn't wear off that well on people, Chuck. Anyway, I'll see you guys later. Lil, Phil and I have class."

With that, the 3 walked away without another word. Tommy looked at his best friend with a confused expression. "Dude, what did you do?"

"I have no idea. I think my very existence today is ticking her off. She must be going through a phase today or something."

The two of them shrugged and continued walking into the school. As they got further down the hallway, they stopped by Tommy's rusty, old locker, which creaked every time he opened it. "So, how are things at home, man? It must be kind of odd to have to change in such a short period of time."

Chuckie leaned against a neighbouring locker and stated, "It's gone fairly smoothly, I guess. My stepmom's really nice and I love having a new sister, but I'm not sure that Kimi's that on board with the idea yet. She walks around the house like she's just a guest in it or something."

Tommy was having a tough time shutting his locker, even with all the workouts he'd been doing lately, so Chuckie helped him push until Tommy could manage putting his lock on it. They both picked up their bags, turned to leave and were surprised to hear this low cracking sound. Tommy nervously turned his head back, took a careful step forward, but heard nothing. As he turned back though, all they could hear was a loud bang and the sound of a bunch of items pouring out, knocking over a few passing students.

Chuck had his mouth wide open, while Tommy had his hand over his face and shook his head in annoyance.

'What a Monday…' Chuckie thought to himself.


End file.
